Separate but equal – reposted from this morning

On March 31, Eve and I drove close to a 300-mile circuit south of Austin to see what wildflowers we could see. And see them we did, stopping repeatedly to appreciate the profusion along the roadsides and in adjacent fields in this spring of normal rain after a year of drought. The first stop was along US 183 south of Luling, and it produced today’s picture.

The red, as you saw a couple of days ago in the median of Loop 360, comes from Indian paintbrushes, Castilleja indivisa. The yellow wildflowers in the background make their first appearance in this blog: they’re Texas dandelions, Pyrrhopappus pauciflorus. These are native here, as opposed to the dandelions from Europe that have spread across much of North America, including the lawns of the New York suburb I grew up in.

It’s common in Texas to find dense mixtures of wildflowers—again as you saw a couple of posts back—but sometimes two species colonize the same terrain mostly separately, as on this plot of ground, where there were only a few dandelions among the Indian paintbrushes and vice versa.

NOTE: Because of a problem this morning in which some subscription e-mails didn’t go out, I’m following the advice of a WordPress “Happiness Engineer” and reposting this. If you received the original e-mail, I’m sorry for the duplication.

14 Responses

I can’t vouch for any eggs, but we saw wildflowers of many colors and mixtures of colors. You’ll be seeing some of those in the days ahead.

While it was still eight days before Easter, we did leave from the east side of Austin and stayed east of Interstate 35. The etymologist in me can’t resist pointing out that east and Easter are closely related English words.

The combinations of colors among the spring wildflowers are always impressive here. More of those combinations will be coming your way in the days ahead, as well as closer views of the native dandelion so you can see how it differs from Taraxacum officinale. You’re correct that the Texan species also has wonderful puffball seed heads.

I’ve never known what the yellow were – they’ve just exploded around here in the past few days, and everyone is asking one another, “What ARE those things?” They’re always around, but this year they’re so profuse they’re really attracting attention.

The other combination I’ve been noting is the pink evening primrose and a very deep purple something – low growing and dense. I’m beginning here to catch up, so you may have some posted, or you may have them in the future.

My favorite combination is bluebonnets and red paintbrush. If the ratio’s just right, they turn the fields purple.

Tomorrow I’ll have closer views of Texas dandelions, which, like so many species, are having a good spring. I wonder if the low-growing purple flowers you mentioned are Texas stork’s bill, Erodium texanum, which have been coming out here in large numbers the past couple of weeks. I’ve taken but not yet posted pictures of them; in the meantime, you can see what the flowers looks like at